total personality—depending on the nature of the person with whom he is dealing and on the nature of their
interaction.
Sometimes, the aspect in which a man feels visible pertains to a basic character trait; sometimes, to the nature of his
intention in performing some action; sometimes, to the reasons behind a particular emotional response; sometimes,
to an issue involving his sense of life; sometimes, to a matter concerning his activity as a producer; sometimes, to
his sexual psychology; sometimes, to his esthetic values.
All the forms of interaction and communication among people—intellectual, emotional, physical—can serve to
give a man the perceptual evidence of his visibility in one respect or another; or, relative to particular people, can
give him the impression of invisibility. Most men are largely unaware of the process by which this occurs; they are
aware only of the results. They are aware that, in the presence of a particular person, they do or do not feel "at
home," do or do not feel a sense of affinity or understanding or emotional attunement.
The mere fact of holding a conversation with another human being entails a marginal experience of visibility—if
only the experience of being perceived as a conscious entity. However, in a close human relationship, with a person
one deeply admires and cares for, one expects a far more profound visibility, involving highly individual and
intimate aspects of one's inner life.
A significant mutuality of intellect, of basic premises and values, of fundamental attitude toward life, is the
precondition of that projection of mutual visibility which is the essence of authentic friendship. A friend, said
Aristotle, is another self. It was an apt formulation. A friend reacts to a man as, in effect, the man would react to
himself in the person of another. Thus, the man perceives himself through his friend's reaction. He perceives his
own person through its consequences in the consciousness (and, as a result, in the behavior) of the perceiver.
This, then, is the root of man's desire for companionship and love: the desire to perceive himself as an entity in
reality—to experience the perspective of objectivity—through and by means of the reactions and responses of other
human beings.
The principle involved ("the Muttnik principle")—let us call it "the Visibility principle"—may be summarized as
follows: Man